The role of literacy in enhancing capabilities for participation in Uganda's plan for modernism of agriculture : exploring the experiences of rural subsistence farmers in Manibe Sub-County.

View/Open

Date

Author

Metadata

Abstract

This study examined the role of literacy in enhancing rural people's capabilities for
participation in Uganda's Plan for Modernisation of Agriculture (PMA), an
intervention aimed at improving rural livelihoods through commercialising
subsistence agriculture. Using Amartya Sen's capability approach, in which poverty is
conceptualised to be a capability deprivation as the conceptual frame of reference, the
study aimed at exploring how literacy facilitates or inhibits rural subsistence farmers'
participation levels in PMA activities in Manibe Sub-County, Arua District. Using
data collected from 54 research participants analysed interpretively, the study revealed
that the majority of PMA activities demand a high degree of interaction with written
materials, mostly in English, which created an unconducive atmosphere for the
unschooled in the target group, thereby forcing them to depend on literacy mediators.
It further revealed that there were more women than men participating in parish level
activities which greatly decreased in favour of men at sub-county levels and above. It
also found that farmers' groups were treated uniformly which negatively affects some
of them in terms of access to resources and options. It further revealed that lack of
supporting resources, stringent conditions for accessing Enterprise Development
Funds, and difficulties in meeting farmers' co-funding requirements, were creating
serious obstacles in undertaking group activities, hence making many potential
participants avoid PMA activities.
The main thesis in the study is that transforming rural subsistence producers into
small-scale commercial farmers as a rural poverty reduction strategy, without
providing them with the means to expand their basic capabilities so as to move out of
capability deprivation, will not by itself increase rural incomes and reduce poverty. It
is argued further that engaging the rural subsistence farmers in commercial agriculture
will tend to enrich the educated few who are already better resourced. Since capability
deprivation, amongst others, manifests itself through widespread illiteracy, the study
recommends that efforts to eradicate rural poverty should focus on expanding the
capabilities of the target group through building their literacy skills and improving
their access to basic resources.